Friday, 26 December 2014

Boxing Day Tradition

It has become a family tradition of ours that every Boxing
Day we go to Colchester Zoo. It is nice
to get out of the house (and away from the Christmas mess!) and into the fresh
air to spend time as a family. We’ve
been lucky with the weather, since we started going four years ago; it has
always been crisp and bright.

Colchester Zoo is huge, so we took two buggies as it would
be a lot of walking for Fraser! We
looked at the animals and went to the soft play. The best part of our day was seeing the
Penguin Feed. We went to other feeds and
presentations such as the giraffes and elephants but I couldn’t believe how
close the penguins got to us! Fraser
stared fascinated at them while they swallowed fish in one bite. I watched him, watching them and could
literally see the cogs in his head turning as he watched them and learned about
them. Later at dinner time he was trying to eat his carrots with no hands, in
one bite – like the penguins were J

We had a lovely day but I couldn’t help but feel a little
bit sad, sad for the animals. At the
lion enclosure the huge male lion was pacing back and forth and staring at all
of the viewers and roaring, and I swear he eyed up little Caleb thinking that he
would be an easy kill. I know that
sounds dramatic but I know what I saw!

Also a chimpanzee ran and jumped on the glass as we were
staring in at him, like he was aggravated.
There were signs up around the animals saying exactly why they are there
and how they were rescued by the zoo, which made me feel slightly better but
still sad.

The chimps had been
rescued from a testing lab where they had been since they were young and the
torture they experienced had understandably affected their behaviour. The bears had been saved from a place in Asia
where they were kept in cages and bile was taken from their stomachs for
medicinal purposes.

After the penguin feed I spoke to the zoo keeper and she
explained that these penguins had always been captive and that they wouldn’t
know what to do in the wild if they were released. She explained that a percentage of penguins
need to be captive to protect the species as they are in such danger in the outside
world and therefore if the worst happened they could breed them in zoos and
later release them (they are very careful to monitor family trees and
inbreeding etc.).

When I was 18 years old my family and I went on safari in
South Africa, Kruger National Park and it was amazing to see the animals in the
wild, running free, so I think it makes it hard to appreciate zoos. I would love to take the boys to Africa when
they are older to go on safari.

Although the above sounds a little bit negative we did have
a wonderful day being a family and the boys learned so much and enjoyed
watching the animals eat and play. There
were also great play areas and parks there.